LoneWolf&Subs

As soon as the bell rang, I knew this match was designed as an homage to 90’s All Japan. With Taichi starting fast with a “Dangerous” backdrop like his mentor Kawada did in some of his best matches at the Budokan. The finish even reflected this too, as usually modern New Japan is about countering the signature spot, or finisher into your own signature spot that preludes the finisher. This one was more about Iishi trying to survive Taichi’s blitz of offense at the end, but couldn’t turn the tide like Misawa, Kobashi, and Kawada did long ago. BTW, main was great. New Japan always does this to me by making me gasp when somebody big loses clean on the final nights. Yesterday was Tana, and today Naito. Got to hand it to the booking committee. It takes something special to do that.

The fact they’ve had him hold the IC title for so long basically confirms that they want him in a Nakamura spot as #2, behind the leading man, Okada. They are still going to run double big shows. So they’ll need to spread the star power to as many parts of the company as possible. Okada will not relinquish his place on the card. He’s the ace of the company for at least part of the next decade until the next gen is ready to rival him, like he rivaled Tana this last decade.

I’ve been saying this for a while now. This dude is 90% elbow pads.

“Once a man...”

Waterworld has our hero pimp out a woman, and her adoptive daughter for fucking paper, beautiful paper! Waterworld>>>>>>>>>>Mad Max

That lady with the EVIL teddy bear warmed my heart, and the guy praying with the mini-scythe cracked me up.

Giving him that elusive win. Also setting him up as the King of Pro Wrestling challenger.

Did Omega, & Ibushi’s infamous moonsault spot also force wrestling promotions to move fans back a mile away at the Budokan? All that empty space today, and last year, becomes a super distracting for a long time fan that has watched years worth of Budokan matches.

There have been rumors of SANADA leaving prior to the Dome, so he might be doing farewell jobs on his way out. Ospreay Vs. Tana was amazing, I made an audible gasp when Will hit the Hidden Blade. I thought Tana was going to turn it around somehow, but when his elbow hit the back of Tana’s head, that pretty much meant the end.

That elbow combo is pretty rad. Actually looks rotoscoped, and not just a Frankensteining of different Fire Pro moves. This is almost practically the 10 I expected, except Andras. Tam Nakano not getting the 10th spot is the only surprise.

Just be happy they aren’t the Kabuky Warryors.

“Pocket Sand” got me.

Her partner we’ll be decided by a battle of the Bam Bam’s.

Man, fuck those two for stealing Rick Fuller’s heat.

Oh, I had a feeling he’d up in the WWE soon. But his lack of in ring progress makes me think he’ll be a bust of the Sin Cara variety, in that he’s absolutely being a star in the genre of wrestling he works in, but can’t translate to another genre. I know some posters love Rush, and maybe he can surprise me, but I just don’t see it. He’s got a great look, he just needs to have competent matches.

The best bet for fans is that Fite is bought out by a neutral multi-Corp.

Please guys, when Monday hits, keep the G1 Finals results to this thread, at least until 8 PM EST. I’m going to try to watch this spoiler free as soon as I wake up Monday, or at least sneak it into my drive when I go from work order, to work order. I don’t want to stumble on a spoiler in the pictures, or gif thread. I’m bringing this up now because I noticed the show starts at 2 AM PST. So there is no way I can watch this live, unless I want to tempt falling asleep behind the wheel.

Draws are one point. It’s been like that since Super Fire Pro Wrestling Premium X.

Awwww... I thought it said “Sea Lover” as a reference to his pirate gimmick. BTW, has anybody else noticed SANADA is a move thief during his matches. It’s like he’s “Pirating” his opponents moves.

MY LORD! So many lariats during Shingo Vs. Iishi. You probably need 5 hands to count the amount they threw today.

Are Dave, and Bryan eating on air, or do they have excessive dry mouth?

It makes less sense to book Ziggler as an actual threat. His segments should be him in an arena corner, with his pants drenched in piss, crying “He’s coming to kill me” over, and over again to build to Goldberg. The blood thirsty fans will eat up these SummerSlam Groupons to watch this live murder.

The Baltimore Arena is one that comes to mind, with its boxy upper bowl. I really liked the MSG overflow theater that they used for the Lion’s Den match, and smaller Tuesday Night Fight Cards. Wish AEW, or WWE used it for non PPV events. Also the WWE failed miserably with the Manhattan Center a while back ago. So they don’t get the benefit of the doubt with running special venues.

It disgust me that Koko B. Ware, and Kid Rock made it in before before ICP.